导读：“纷纷红紫已成尘，布谷声中夏令新。”立夏时节，向各位亲爱的读者推出古诗英译栏目“华章英韵”第四期。本期邀请刘伯弢先生执笔主译宋朝诗人陆游的《初夏绝句》，让我们一起欣赏刘先生文思泉涌、议论风生中的真知灼见。
主持人：王如利、丁立群
朗诵：湖心亭（中文）、张明彬（英文）
书法：蔡铁勇
Introduction
朗诵：湖心亭（中文）、张明彬（英文）
书法：蔡铁勇
Introduction
“纷纷红紫已成尘，布谷声中夏令新。”立夏时节，向各位亲爱的读者推出古诗英译栏目“华章英韵”第四期。本期邀请刘伯弢先生执笔主译宋朝诗人陆游的《初夏绝句》，让我们一起欣赏刘先生文思泉涌、议论风生中的真知灼见。
“Into dirt are petals red 'nd purple gone; 'Midst cooing Cuckoos is Summertime come.” In the beginning of summer, we will introduce to you, dear Reader, the fourth issue of Chinese Verse in English Rhyme, a column for English translations of ancient Chinese poetry. In this issue, we feel honored that Mr. Liu Botao has accepted our invitation to translate “A Quatrain Composed Upon Early Summer” by Lu You of the Song Dynasty. Let's enjoy Mr. Liu's great insights in his powerful flow of ideas and vivid discussions.
“Into dirt are petals red 'nd purple gone; 'Midst cooing Cuckoos is Summertime come.” In the beginning of summer, we will introduce to you, dear Reader, the fourth issue of Chinese Verse in English Rhyme, a column for English translations of ancient Chinese poetry. In this issue, we feel honored that Mr. Liu Botao has accepted our invitation to translate “A Quatrain Composed Upon Early Summer” by Lu You of the Song Dynasty. Let's enjoy Mr. Liu's great insights in his powerful flow of ideas and vivid discussions.
中文朗诵：湖心亭（中诗网朗诵版版主）
英文朗诵：张明彬（副教授）
初夏绝句
（宋）陆游
纷纷红紫已成尘，
布谷声中夏令新。
夹路桑麻行不尽，
始知身是太平人。
（宋）陆游
纷纷红紫已成尘，
布谷声中夏令新。
夹路桑麻行不尽，
始知身是太平人。
A Quatrain Composed Upon Early Summer
By LU You ( of the Song Dynasty)Translated by LIU Botao
Into dirt are petals red 'nd purple gone;
'Midst cooing Cuckoos is Summertime come.
Thro' hemp 'nd mulberries growing wide and thick,
Myself adrift in peace I find - not so quick.
Translator's Note
《初夏绝句》出自南宋诗人陆游之手。诗人字务观，号放翁，诗作多慷慨悲歌，壮怀激烈。此诗体量虽小却意蕴丰富，格调也清新隽永，全然没有愤怒呼号的感觉。前两句写季节更替和夏景兴荣，传神清澈。后两句则描绘了作物生长旺盛的农桑景象。诗人身处其中，当然会有太平盛世之感。
但陆游所处的时代，正是我国历史上民族矛盾异常尖锐的时代。北宋亡国，南宋政权苟且于临安，不但不发愤图强收复失地，反而一意向金人屈膝求和。时代如此混乱不堪，陆游为什么反倒说自己是太平人呢？可能是有夏日作物欣欣之景而生此感，也可能是生于乱世而期盼和平盛世，也可能是自然的美景暂时让他忘记了愁烦。这些我们都不得而知。有人说“大自然让人忘记了国忧”，好像是一首笔调明快、清新安逸的诗，但诗人显然是以此来反衬乱世的动荡不安。中国历来有诗为史、史为诗、史诗互证的传统，可见，一首诗要是剥离了语境，就如抽掉了灵魂一般。
(此部分借鉴网络资源，特此致谢。)
The Quatrain, by Lu You (1125-1210), a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, is small of size but big of substance, in stark contrast to his many compositions of an otherwise vehemently elegiac nature. In a style that features graphic freshness and poetic import, coupled with zero signs of verbal heroics of indignation or distress, the lines run smooth and limpid, in what is a moving bucolic summerscape of exuberance and plenitude, which naturally aroused in the poet a sense of idyllic euphoria and peace of mind.
But those were troubled times for the poet, alias Wuguan (字, a name given by a man to himself at age 20), also alternatively called Fangweng (号, a name as which a man is addressed by his peers and juniors), when clashes between ethnic groups were seeing their full swing. The Northern Song Dynasty, subjugated and rendered ineffectual, was relegated to a regime in exile. The Southern Song, with Lin'an, today's Hangzhou, as its capital, resigned itself to circumstances and, rather than pooling its resources to stage a comeback for lost territories, bent its knees for peace from ethnic Nüzhen invaders from the north. How come a poet labeled himself a man blessed with peace against a backdrop of nationwide chaos and turmoil? The verdant summer may be the cause. Or it may be that the poet was looking forward to peace and prosperity. Or, as it were, the poet was mesmerized at the sight of the rolling vigor of nature, oblivious of all the angst and anguish. None of which we are enabled to know, though. Someone has claimed that "Nature has left the poet in a state of oblivion", as if the poem is all about sprightly lucidity nestled in vivid ease. On the contrary, the poet was leveraging this for a highlighted world of eventfulness. China sports an established literary tradition of reciprocality between poetry and history, i.e., poetry as proof of history and vice versa. A poem, if decontextualized, is nothing but a skeleton, a void free of the anima or soul. Poetic connoisseurship, a highly reader-specific enterprise, hinges upon the degree of a reader's preparedness for a particular poem, which may strike him or her somewhere and somehow.
(Courtesy of online sources, to which heavy reference has been made for the part in Chinese.)
但陆游所处的时代，正是我国历史上民族矛盾异常尖锐的时代。北宋亡国，南宋政权苟且于临安，不但不发愤图强收复失地，反而一意向金人屈膝求和。时代如此混乱不堪，陆游为什么反倒说自己是太平人呢？可能是有夏日作物欣欣之景而生此感，也可能是生于乱世而期盼和平盛世，也可能是自然的美景暂时让他忘记了愁烦。这些我们都不得而知。有人说“大自然让人忘记了国忧”，好像是一首笔调明快、清新安逸的诗，但诗人显然是以此来反衬乱世的动荡不安。中国历来有诗为史、史为诗、史诗互证的传统，可见，一首诗要是剥离了语境，就如抽掉了灵魂一般。
(此部分借鉴网络资源，特此致谢。)
The Quatrain, by Lu You (1125-1210), a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, is small of size but big of substance, in stark contrast to his many compositions of an otherwise vehemently elegiac nature. In a style that features graphic freshness and poetic import, coupled with zero signs of verbal heroics of indignation or distress, the lines run smooth and limpid, in what is a moving bucolic summerscape of exuberance and plenitude, which naturally aroused in the poet a sense of idyllic euphoria and peace of mind.
But those were troubled times for the poet, alias Wuguan (字, a name given by a man to himself at age 20), also alternatively called Fangweng (号, a name as which a man is addressed by his peers and juniors), when clashes between ethnic groups were seeing their full swing. The Northern Song Dynasty, subjugated and rendered ineffectual, was relegated to a regime in exile. The Southern Song, with Lin'an, today's Hangzhou, as its capital, resigned itself to circumstances and, rather than pooling its resources to stage a comeback for lost territories, bent its knees for peace from ethnic Nüzhen invaders from the north. How come a poet labeled himself a man blessed with peace against a backdrop of nationwide chaos and turmoil? The verdant summer may be the cause. Or it may be that the poet was looking forward to peace and prosperity. Or, as it were, the poet was mesmerized at the sight of the rolling vigor of nature, oblivious of all the angst and anguish. None of which we are enabled to know, though. Someone has claimed that "Nature has left the poet in a state of oblivion", as if the poem is all about sprightly lucidity nestled in vivid ease. On the contrary, the poet was leveraging this for a highlighted world of eventfulness. China sports an established literary tradition of reciprocality between poetry and history, i.e., poetry as proof of history and vice versa. A poem, if decontextualized, is nothing but a skeleton, a void free of the anima or soul. Poetic connoisseurship, a highly reader-specific enterprise, hinges upon the degree of a reader's preparedness for a particular poem, which may strike him or her somewhere and somehow.
(Courtesy of online sources, to which heavy reference has been made for the part in Chinese.)
P.S.:
An alternative version by Prof. Farong Zhu:
(附山东农业大学朱法荣教授版本)
(附山东农业大学朱法荣教授版本)
Gone to dirt are the petals of red or purple;
Comes anew the summer's day at the cuckoos' call.
The never-ending hemps 'nd mulberries thrive all the way;
For a moment I find myself a dog at his day*.
*Prof. Zhu derives the “dog” phrasing from a Chinese saying: Better be a[n under]dog in peace than a human in war.
(朱教授版本所用“狗”的意象取自汉语谚语：宁做太平犬，不做乱世人。)
Comes anew the summer's day at the cuckoos' call.
The never-ending hemps 'nd mulberries thrive all the way;
For a moment I find myself a dog at his day*.
*Prof. Zhu derives the “dog” phrasing from a Chinese saying: Better be a[n under]dog in peace than a human in war.
(朱教授版本所用“狗”的意象取自汉语谚语：宁做太平犬，不做乱世人。)
Translator's Bio
译者恳请署名“樗栎居白屋山人刘伯弢”，详情从略。
The Translator humbly requests publication thereof on condition of anonymity, except for appellation as B.T. Liu, Esq., alias Mr. Awkwood the CasaBlanca Dweller (樗栎居白屋山人), a self-proclaimed academic-turned media “veteran” on the right (left, actually) side of 60.
The Translator humbly requests publication thereof on condition of anonymity, except for appellation as B.T. Liu, Esq., alias Mr. Awkwood the CasaBlanca Dweller (樗栎居白屋山人), a self-proclaimed academic-turned media “veteran” on the right (left, actually) side of 60.
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